Regulatory agencies such as the World Health Organization establish standards and guidelines for the production of pharmaceutical compositions administered to humans, such as vaccines, that limit quantity and components of the compositions. Meeting these standards is particularly challenging with regard to production of vaccines containing biological agents, such as viruses, which must be propagated on cell substrates. Such vaccine preparations must be sterile (i.e., free from independently replicating organisms) and may contain no more than 10 ng of host cell DNA per human dose, among other requirements. These standards are in place in order to ensure safety of the composition for human administration, but may introduce challenges in the development of processes used to produce such compositions.
Protamine was originally isolated from the sperm of salmon and other species of fish but is now produced primarily through recombinant biotechnology. It is a highly cationic peptide that binds to negatively charged molecules such as nucleic acids to form a stable ion pair. Its use in removing host cell nucleic acid is well document.